27 Storms: Arlene To Zeta
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- Written by:
- Alison Schuyler Ogden
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- Scientific consulting by:
- Jeff Halverson
- View full credits
By the numbers the 2005 Atlantic tropical storm season was unlike any other: A total 27 tropical storms, including 15 hurricanes, made it a record-breaking year. The season also gave rise to Katrina, one of the most intense and costliest hurricanes that resulted in 1,200 deaths and more than $100 billion in damages. The unusually high frequency and strength of these tropical storms were linked to favorable development conditions observed in the ocean and atmosphere between the Caribbean Sea and west coast of Africa where they form. Easterly winds blowing off the African continent seeded the Atlantic with a large number of proto-hurricanes—swirling air masses that grow over tropical waters. Ideal open ocean wind patterns on the surface and high above permitted storm clouds to easily mature into vigorous convective cells—the building blocks of hurricanes. Warmer ocean surface waters slightly above their 80 degrees Fahrenheit average further strengthened the storms and sent the spinning hurricanes into overdrive. The visualization below tracks the paths of all 27 tropical storms that made up this historical year.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
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Animators
- Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Eric Sokolowsky (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
- Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC)
- James W. Williams (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Jeff de La Beaujardiere (NASA)
- Jesse Allen (SSAI)
- Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)
- Marte Newcombe (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Randall Jones (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Stuart A. Snodgrass (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
- Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
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Writer
- Alison Schuyler Ogden (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
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Scientist
- Jeff Halverson (JCET UMBC) [Lead]
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Narrator
- Michael Starobin (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Project support
- Joycelyn Thomson Jones (NASA/GSFC)
- Kevin Mahoney (CSC)
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